Terra Prime
In the Terra Prime In the Section 31 in the 22nd century In the Xenophobic Humans '' |image= |series= |production=40358-421 |producer(s)= |story= Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-Stevens and André Bormanis |script=Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Manny Coto |director=Marvin V. Rush |imdbref=tt0572245 |guests=Peter Weller as John Frederick Paxton, Harry Groener as Nathan Samuels, Gary Graham as Ambassador Soval, Eric Pierpoint as Harris, Adam Clark as Josiah, Peter Mensah as Daniel Greaves, Johanna Watts as Gannet Brooks, Derek Magyar as Commander Kelby, Joel Swetow as Ambassador Thoris and Josh Holt as Ensign Masaro |previous_production=Demons |next_production=These Are the Voyages... |episode=ENT S04E21 |airdate=13 May 2005 |previous_release=Demons |next_release=These Are the Voyages... |story_date(s)= 22 January 2155 |previous_story=Demons |next_story=The Cage }} Summary Previously The formation of a Coalition of Planets brings the crew of Enterprise into conflict with John Frederick Paxton and his anti alien group, known as Terra Prime. The group plan to force all non humans to leave Earth using a Mars based comet deflecting verteron array, and the existence of a Human/Vulcan baby girl, created by combining DNA from Commander T'Pol and Commander Tucker, who are both captured when they travel to Paxton’s facility to investigate. Conclusion Commander T'Pol and Commander Tucker remain captives of Paxton, who continues to broadcast his demand on all channels and frequencies. Paxton's action has an unsettling effect on the interspecies conference since it is clear that not all humans support it. On Mars, Paxton allows T'Pol and Tucker see the baby, and T'Pol uses her scanner to learn that the child is unwell (and that Paxton has been using Rigelian gene therapy to treat himself). Seeking to fine-tune their attack, Paxton then threatens T'Pol to force Tucker to optimize the targeting system of the array. Enterprise is then ordered to Mars to destroy the array, but is turned away when a warning shot from the weapon damages the ship. Gannet Brooks, now in the brig, reveals to Ensign Mayweather she is a Starfleet Intelligence operative, and that Terra Prime probably has an operative aboard. Under the urging of Minister Samuels, the crew of Enterprise conceive a way to approach the deadly station undetected, using a shuttlepod hidden inside the tail of a comet. Captain Archer elects to lead the away mission, along with Lieutenant Reed, Doctor Phlox, and Mayweather. En route, the shuttle's systems suddenly fail, nearly causing it to crash. Landing on Mars, the team then infiltrate Paxton's ship. Teaming up with Tucker, who has escaped his cell, they battle the Terra Prime followers in the control room. During the shootout, Paxton manages to lock the firing sequence — fortunately, Tucker has altered the targeting, and the beam misses. With Paxton under arrest, the hybrid child, named Elizabeth after Tucker's sister, is delivered to Phlox who unfortunately cannot do anything to save her. Investigations also reveal that Ensign Masaro was the spy, and he dies by his own hand. Back in Starfleet, Archer makes an impassioned speech to convince the delegates to explore the universe's mysteries together. Errors and Explanations Factual errors # When Paxton fires the beam at Earth's moon, it strikes it immediately. Even at the closest possible distance between Earth and Mars, it would take a little over 3 minutes for the beam, traveling at the speed of light, to reach the moon. The same is true for when the beam strikes the San Fransisco Bay later. The beam may incorporate a subspace field. Nit Central # Duke of Earl Grey on Friday, May 13, 2005 - 7:27 pm: I've missed many, many episodes, but did something happen to the cloaked Suliban craft that Enterprise used to have? Because if they still have it, they should have used that to get to Mars without being spotted, instead of risking trailing behind the comet (which was much cooler than the cloaked ship would have been, though). It was probably transferred to Earth before the Delphic Expanse mission, and likely dismantled as part of the evaluation process. # dotter31 on Friday, May 13, 2005 - 8:12 pm: Couldn't the Enterprise have cooked up some kind of radiation or interference to block Paxton's transmission? That would have alerted Paxton that Starfleet were planning some way of stopping him. # Big Josh on Saturday, May 14, 2005 - 6:32 am: I missed the premise of that baby. How did they get it, and for what reason was it cloned? Stone Cold Steven Of None on Saturday, May 14, 2005 - 7:30 am: They got DNA samples, courtesy of their man on board, and combined them, I think. # Stone Cold Steven Of None on Saturday, May 14, 2005 - 7:30 am: How could an ENGINEERING division crewman (who was apparently working under Mr Kelby - who I thought was going to be named as the TP agent, for a moment) have gotten into Sickbay, pulled the samples and gotten out without alerting either the medical staff or Phlox's deadly attack bat? He probably sneaked in while Phlox was busy elsewhere and then bat was asleep! # Wouldn't the shuttlepod have been destroyed in the explosion when the comet hit the ground (I thought that whole deal was cool, too, though; like something Han Solo in his prime might have done)? Depends how far back it was at the time of impact. # LUIGI NOVI on Saturday, May 14, 2005 - 11:44 am: Okay, so why in the world would Paxton make a human-Vulcan hybrid if he hates the very idea of human-Vulcan mixing? He refers to it as a freak. So why the hell would he make it? This reminds me of Phil Farrand’s observation of Dr. Serova’s solution for proving that the Hekaras Corridor was made unstable by warp travel when discussing Force of Nature (TNG). Wouldn’t it have made more story sense if it were revealed that Paxton needed Elizabeth because something in a human-Vulcan hybrid’s bloodstream produced a substance he used for his injections for Taggart’s Syndrome? Wouldn’t that have made a nicer sense of irony than just using an alien form of gene therapy? ' ''SeniramUK 11:31, December 18, 2018 (UTC) He wanted to scare people into thinking continued interaction with other races would lead to the extinction of Humanity.' # Reed’s statement in the teaser that Paxton has the verteron array tied into his ship’s warp core, and that destruction of the array will destroy both is really contrived. Why would destroying the array do anything to the warp core. So what if it’s “tied in” to the warp core? Tied in in what way? In terms of power? So what? That doesn’t mean it should cause the magnetic containment fields holding the matter and antimatter used to power the warp core to collapse. This is silly, and is akin to how cars always blow up when they fall off cliffs in movies and TV shows. '''Destroying the array could trigger a power feedback in the warp core.' # More lack of scale: Samuels, when told in the beginning of Act 1 that Paxton’s transmission can’t be blocked, orders the Enterprise contacted so that he can talk to Archer. Shouldn’t he contact Admiral Gardner, so that Gardner can relay the orders to Archer? This would be like George W. Bush personally contacting a soldier in Iraq to give him orders for his next mission. Three problems with that suggestion. 1) Contacting Archer direct, instead of going via Gardner, would ensure the orders were received by Enterprise. 2) Even if Gardner could be persuaded to pass the orders on, this indirect contact could take too long. 3) Direct contact would minimise the chances of a security leak. # Why is Phlox on the rescue mission? He would need to check Trip, T'Pol and their child as soon as possible. # Knowing that the Enterprise is a potential target when Paxton’s deadline is up, why in the world is Samuels on its bridge when the deadline passes in the fifth scene of Act 3. He wants Paxton to realise the cost of his actions. Category:Episodes Category:Enterprise